The battle to define the Koch brothers

When it comes to the suddenly infamous Koch brothers, there’s one thing the conservative Weekly Standard and liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald can agree on: The Kochs, Charles and David, have been a boon to the American political left.

“For progressives confused at the heated opposition to their do-gooder agenda, the Kochs became convenient scapegoats,” asserts the Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti this week in a long cover story defending the Kochs. Liberals in the media have “ascribed every bad thing under the sun to the brothers and their checkbooks. Pollution, the Tea Party, global warming denial—the Kochs were responsible,” Continetti writes, asserting that in recent months “whenever you turned on MSNBC or clicked on the Huffington Post you’d see the Kochs described in terms more applicable to Lex Luthor and General Zod.”

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There’s a reason for that, explained Greenwald, who is raising money for a documentary series set to launch this week called “The Kochs Exposed.”

“The Koch brothers are a poster child for connecting the dots of all the different issues and organizations that they are involved in and that they fund,” he said. “In the world of narratives, you need heroes, you need villains, and you need storylines that people remember – in politics, more than any place else.”

Virtually unknown as recently as 2009, the Kochs have become political household names, following in the footsteps of other wealthy bankers and industrialists such as the 19th century Robber Barons – the Fricks, Harrimans and Rockefellers – who have been targets of progressives and reformers. But the new prominence of the Kochs is a case study in the kinds of 21st century big-money branding battles that underlie many Washington political and policy fights. It features one side using all the means of modern political communications to put a face on its opponents – and the other side furiously fighting back using its own techniques.

The Kochs – each of whom is worth a reported $21.5 billion as a result of their stakes in Koch Industries, the family owned oil, chemical and consumer products business – have been donating millions of dollars to small-government conservative causes and candidates for decades.

But the unwelcome scrutiny only began in earnest in recent months, fueled by a confluence of circumstances, and shaped by a collaborative effort by liberal government watchdog groups, unions, environmentalists and a White House-allied non-profit. The resulting campaign has helped many of the groups boost their profiles and their issues, raise money and undermine opponents.

In response, David and Charles Koch – who, as owners of a private company, have never received the scrutiny of shareholders or Wall Street and hadn’t sought or received much attention beyond conservative and philanthropic circles – hired a team of seasoned Washington crisis communications experts. Together with allies in the conservative media, they have launched a counter-offensive to cast the brothers as victims of a confused and emotional explosion of liberal hatred.

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CORRECTION: Corrected by: Alex Byers @ 03/28/2011 05:52 PM
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story, a photo caption mistakenly identified David Koch as Robert Koch.
MADE BY BYERS per Cohen at 552p on 3/28